3 Quarks Daily (3QD) is an online news aggregator and blog that curates commentary, essays, and multimedia from high quality periodicals, newspapers, journals, and blogs. The focus is on literature, the arts, politics, current affairs, science, philosophy, gossip–and, as stated on their web site–"anything else we deem inherently fascinating." Each day of the week from Tuesday through Sunday features about a dozen items culled from the World Wide Web. Each Monday is devoted to an online magazine which has essays and other previously unpublished content by editors and guest columnists.[1][unreliable source?] The stated aim of 3QD is to offer “a one-stop intellectual surfing experience by culling good stuff from all over and putting it in one place.”[2][non-primary source needed]

The name 3 Quarks Daily comes from the elementary nuclear particles of physics which in turn were named after the word quark which James Joyce had used in Finnegans Wake.[9][irrelevant citation]
The confluence of references to both science and literature in a single word suited the intent of the blog perfectly and the founders also thought that the name would be short and memorable. They named their top three annual prizes the Top Quark (1st), the Strange Quark (2nd), and the Charm Quark (3rd).

Since 2012 3 Quarks Daily has teamed up with the Amsterdam-based Dialogue Advisory Group (DAG) to present online dialogues on topics of international peace and justice.[10][irrelevant citation] Occasionally, as in the 2013 symposium on drones, a book is published.[11] As of October 2015 there have been six such symposia as shown below.

In 2009, in the interest of encouraging and rewarding good writing in the blogosphere, 3QD announced that it would be awarding annual cash prizes, in Science, Arts & Literature, Politics, and Philosophy for the three best blog posts in each of these four fields. The selection process is as follows: After several weeks during which nominees are submitted by 3QD readers and editors, the four principal editors of 3QD (Abbas Raza, Robin Varghese, Morgan Meis, and Azra Raza) winnow the list down to six articles in each category. A prominent intellectual such as Steven Pinker,[12][unreliable source?]Richard Dawkins,[13] or Lewis Lapham[14][non-primary source needed] is chosen in each of the four areas to select the final winners. The prizes are whimsically named the Top Quark (first prize of $500), the Strange Quark (second prize of $200), a nd the Charm Quark (third prize of $100). Originally the prize amounts were twice as big. Not every prize is awarded in every year and no prizes at all were awarded in 2013. A complete list of prizes awarded since 2009 is shown below.[15][non-primary source needed]

Christopher Lydon: For sheer elegance, wit and worldly wisdom ... for consistency of character and manners, ever above the ordinary... 3 Quarks stands alone. If 3 Quarks Daily were a person, wouldn't it be Proust?[17]

Steven Pinker: I couldn't tear myself away from 3 Quarks Daily, to the point of neglecting my work. Congratulations on this superb site.[18]

Ken Roth: 3 Quarks Daily is an essential stop for any serious reader on the Web.[20]

Laura Claridge: 3 Quarks is a daily must-read for intellectuals of all stripes. It is perhaps even smarter and better and more comprehensive than Arts & Letters Daily, the de facto gold standard of the smart set on the internet.[19]

John Allen Paulos: I've recommended your site to a number of friends and colleagues who've bemoaned the dearth of sites with any literary/scientific muscularity. Keep up the wonderful work.[19]